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Any GW photos of Commander Shadowsun show her in a mostly white battlesuit with some coloured trim. I thought before that she matched the Vior'la colours that they seem to use as their default scheme nowadays, but looking closely the trim is more orange than red. Is there a reason for her to be wearing this rather than the ocre with brown trim of her native T'au Sept?

Is she different due to her rank? Elites wear a white helmet, and she is super mega elite so her whole suit is white? Or does it make more sense that she gets her armour re-painted to more or less match with the GW-approved Vior'la army that she is bound to be leading for any official photo op? Basically, what is the lore justification for her colouring being the way it is, and would it be wrong for me to paint her to look similar to a random T'au Sept Crisis Shas'vre instead?

Also, outside of the lore, is there a reason why GW seems to favour Vior'la nowadays? Do they just think those colours look better? I admit that they probably do, but I am used to how they looked in the Dark Crusade game, damn it!

The actual *armour* colour isn't related to the Sept. The armour colour is changed in accordance to the terrain the army finds itself in.

The sept markings are the constant, which realistically means that Shadowsun should have white sept markings. However, from a painting standpoint, that wouldn't look so good. What seems to have happened is the typical ochre colour has been reappropriated as the sept colour, while the white is the dominant colour, likely because the rest of the Viorla Tau are wearing white too.

Basically, armour repainting is a combination of in-universe and out-of-universe traits.

The white is the Sept colour of T'au.

The usual ochre colour scheme is desert camouflage and/or a traditional/regulation Sept colouration. Inversion of the colours can represent honour markings, which seems likely for O'Shassera.

OK, interesting. Thank you for the explanations.

I think I am going to just paint her in the ochre and brown. If anyone asks then she is going on a desert mission and is trying to confuse enemy snipers

She has a stealth suit. The only reason it should ever show its basic colours is if it's broken. Or if Shadowsun is taken to grandstanding for the benefit of her troops.

She was white armoured when I started playing in 5th, when the studio army was the tan T'au sept.

Lore wise, the T'au's sept colour was white.
Tau normally painted their in camo colours, accented by their sept colour.
Higher ranks had their head painted in the sept colour as well (white for T'au).
I believe Shadowsun paints her whole body in the sept colour because she's super high ranking..

 Flinty wrote:
She has a stealth suit. The only reason it should ever show its basic colours is if it's broken. Or if Shadowsun is taken to grandstanding for the benefit of her troops.

Given that it is essentially impossible to paint something as being invisible, it has to be some sort of colour; and we have multiple colour schemes for stealth suits, so there is obviously variation there too.

Also, maybe her stealth field is turned off, or she is being viewed from within the field.

I remember when the featured tau scheme was 'vomit brown' and that dark red on the fayigues. Iirc, back then this was also the vior'la Sept colour rather than white.

Truth is, there is no 'right ' colour for how to paint shadowsun. No ones gonna pick you up on it. Paint it however the hell you want.

Deadnight wrote:
I remember when the featured tau scheme was 'vomit brown' and that dark red on the fayigues. Iirc, back then this was also the vior'la Sept colour rather than white.

Vior'la's Sept colour is red, and always has been since it was first shown in the 4th ed. Codex: Tau Empire. The white armour of the studio Vior'la army is simply 'typical' of them, according to the 8th ed. codex (a slight change from the off-white they were first shown with).


The original 3rd ed. studio army was the ochre scheme. It wasn't specifically T'au, and the Sept colours and markings hadn't been codified to the extent that they are now. What subsequently became the Sept colour markings match T'au though.
The 4th ed. codex brought with it a new T'au studio army in the ochre scheme, and a blue Sa'cea army. Sept colours were detailed, along with camo patterns, and armour markings were standardised somewhat.
6th edition added the studio's red Farsight Enclave army.
8th edition added the current white Vior'la studio army. More specific detail was given of cadre/rank etc. markings (although as with previous editions, some artwork still doesn't match) and provides more example camo/honour schemes. The T'au and Sa'cea don't show up as much anymore - presumably because they're largely made up of older models which have been updated/replaced.

 Lord Damocles wrote:

Deadnight wrote:
I remember when the featured tau scheme was 'vomit brown' and that dark red on the fayigues. Iirc, back then this was also the vior'la Sept colour rather than white.

Vior'la's Sept colour is red, and always has been since it was first shown in the 4th ed. Codex: Tau Empire. The white armour of the studio Vior'la army is simply 'typical' of them, according to the 8th ed. codex (a slight change from the off-white they were first shown with).


The original 3rd ed. studio army was the ochre scheme. It wasn't specifically T'au, and the Sept colours and markings hadn't been codified to the extent that they are now. What subsequently became the Sept colour markings match T'au though.
The 4th ed. codex brought with it a new T'au studio army in the ochre scheme, and a blue Sa'cea army. Sept colours were detailed, along with camo patterns, and armour markings were standardised somewhat.
6th edition added the studio's red Farsight Enclave army.
8th edition added the current white Vior'la studio army. More specific detail was given of cadre/rank etc. markings (although as with previous editions, some artwork still doesn't match) and provides more example camo/honour schemes. The T'au and Sa'cea don't show up as much anymore - presumably because they're largely made up of older models which have been updated/replaced.

Thanks for the clarification!